04/30/2012. One of the last of the 239 Bf 109's produced under license in Spain in the mid-1950s, this HA-1112-M1L served with the Spanish AF under s/n C.4K-169 until it was struck off charge in 1966 and was sold to T.G. 'Hamish' Mahaddie of Tablada, Spain. It appeared on the British civil register as G-AWHT on May 14, 1968, owner was the Spitfire Production Ltd. of London, which used the Buchon in the Battle of Britain movie. Six months later, November 28, 1968, the registration was cancelled as the aircraft was sold to the USA.

New owner was the Confederate Air Force at Harlingen, Texas, and the aircraft was registered N9939; in 1988 it was reregistered as NX109W to Harold E. Kindsvater. Subsequently it underwent a long rebuilt and first flew again on October 5, 2000. In late 2009 the aircraft was sold to Europe, arriving disassembled by sea container at warbirds overhaul specialist MeierMotors GmbH, Bremgarten Airport, Eschbach, Germany, on January 8, 2010.

The Rolls Royce Merlin engine was completely overhauled by Vintage V12 and assemble was done by the well-known Merlin 'specialist' Mike Nixon. After being registered as D-FMVS on May 5, the aircraft flew again on May 12, 2010, with the well known Bf 109 'specialist' Walter Eichhorn at the controls. A few days later it was delivered (site files) to its new owner Volker Schuelke (hence the 'VS' in the registration) at Heringdorf.

The aircraft was finished in the US in an unauthentic paint scheme with markings most similar to the Bf 109 G-6 (site files) of Hauptmann Ludwig Franzisket, a WW II ace with 43 victories in over 500 combat missions on the western front. On the nose is the badge of I./Gruppe JG 27, directly aft of the cockpit is the double chevron indicating Gruppenkommandeur (group commander), the green fuselage band indicates Reichsverteidigung (defense of the empire), while 33 victory symbols are applied to the rudder.

Note that in photo 3972 the Swastika is shown on the stabilizer, in the delivery photo it is painted out, and in photo 11362 an non-Swastika symbol is shown. This was done to keep on the right side of German law, as Strafgesetzbuch (criminal code) § 86a makes the public showing of the Swastika and other Nazi symbols in Germany illegal and punishable, except for scholarly reasons.